The Bay of Islands

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We got picked up at 10am and taken to the car rental place to pick up our car, it's a great day and after a wee check over for scratches and that we're on our way to the Bay of Islands in Northland, the top of New Zealand.

We have 3 different maps and they all say Paihia is 270 KM from Auckland but they all give different estinates for time, the AA goes with 7 hours and our hostel sugests 3.5 hours, we were slightly more than the ACE car rental map (4.5 hours) and done it in 5, however we did have busy traffic leaving Auckland and stopped for lunch along the way.

The drive up was amazing, stunning scenery and a clear blue sky, it was roasting so the air-con took a fair pelt along the way, we defo made the right choice with the car, a bus would have been a nightmare in this heat. The roads are straight forward, generally one lane each way with passing lanes that last for 500m every 10k's or so, loads of logging trucks and old slow vehicles though and the speed limit is 100KM/h,about 60 MPH, but you rarely get enough space to get up to that speed.

We got to Paihia about half three and it was amazing, it's just a wee holiday tourist town, a 5 minute walk and you're through it but it's got a great beach and a reputation for crazy nightlife, it's where a lot the Kiwi's come on holiday and it's not cheap. The hostel was an old wooden house and was like a rabbit warren, is was really nice though and real cheap compared to Auckland however food and drink was about double Aucklands price so it worked out more expensive, or maybe we just drank more?

After a walk along the beach and a wander through the town and back we settled in a boozer opposite our digs, The Beachcomber Cafe, really cool place with tables out on the street, we sat under the sun until 9pm and got hammered off about 4 drinks, we were bedded early and a good nights sleep was required.

Anyway, I hope the pictures do it some justice as it is an amazing place and is the birthplace of New Zealand, we're going to Waitangi tomorrow where the treaty was signed with Great Britain that turned the land over from the Maoris, another history lesson coming up I think.............

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Photos

Fiona
at Bush Walk, Paihai

Andrew
on Paihai Bay